A dude who witnessed some brazen shoplifting at a Walgreens store in Alameda on Saturday decided to take matters into his own hands and tackle the guy, claiming citizen's arrest. This probably isn't the answer, dude!
ABC 7's Dion Lim, who never met a Walgreens theft story she didn't want to cover, brings us news of this incident via some video posted to Twitter. It seems that the vigilante in question, who only gives his name as Kevin, wanted a little fame and glory out of this, announcing to a bystander that he was going to tackle the shoplifter and asking, "Will you film me?", and handing the bystander his phone.
Kevin then proceeded to body-slam the alleged shoplifter just outside the store, telling him that this is a citizen's arrest. The two struggle for a bit, and you can hear Kevin yell, "I am way bigger than you and I will fuck you up!" Kevin also yells about how thefts like these are causing the prices of goods at Walgreens to go up, which, yeah... the inflation thing is a bit bigger than Walgreens' local shoplifting problem.
๐ช๐ฎ๐น๐ด๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ผ๐บ๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐๐ผ๐ฑ๐ ๐ฆ๐น๐ฎ๐บ๐ ๐ฆ๐๐๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ฆ๐ต๐ผ๐ฝ๐น๐ถ๐ณ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ & ๐๐๐๐ผ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ
— Dion Lim (@DionLimTV) March 22, 2022
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A man who asked to be IDโd only as Kevin told me he was fed up watching a shoplifter in action at a Walgreens in Alameda 3/19.
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He tackled the suspectโฆ(1/4) pic.twitter.com/YdL2iTOa1K
A customer witnessing a thief steal at a Walgreens in Alameda (near Oakland) pins the suspect to the ground before the suspectโs accomplice intervenes. They both escape in a car. @AlamedaPD told the good samaritan he could be charged for his intervention.pic.twitter.com/kSs03OPeud
— Andy Ngรด ๐ณ๏ธโ๐ (@MrAndyNgo) March 22, 2022
The guy starts calling out for his friend over in a getaway vehicle, and Kevin says he thought the guy was "fibbing" about having a friend. But, no, another guy comes up, and Kevin takes him on too, throwing him on the ground.
Dion gets Kevin to talk on camera, because of course he wanted to talk on camera, and Kevin reveals himself to be a probable Republican with some... views.
"I could have been charged with assault and may be charged with assault. It's infuriating. We're all realizing it in Northern California, little, soft cities like this..."
Alameda police say that Walgreens recovered their stolen merchandise in this case, and they declined to press charges. There are no further details about any arrests.
The Alameda Police Department also gave a statement to ABC 7 saying it's ok to video-record a crime in progress if you can do so safely, but if you get involved like Kevin did that may open you up to charges as well.
As has repeatedly been made clear in media coverage of Walgreens shoplifting incidents, while Walgreens may sometimes employee private security guards, those guards are trained not to physically intervene when a shoplifting incident is in progress. But that does not mean it's up to private citizens to pick up the slack and commit an assault like this just to make a point.
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